Thinking for Speaking in Motion Event Descriptions by Korean-English Bilinguals

Abstract

This study investigated how Talmy’s typological framework and Slobin’s (1996) ‘thinking for speaking’ hypothesis affect Korean-English bilinguals’ verbal expression of the motion events in L1 and L2. Based on the cross-linguistic differences in conflation of motion between English and Korean, this study determines whether and how monolingual English speakers and bilinguals (Korean L1, English L2) who reside in the USA differ in the lexicalization of motion events in L1 and L2. The bilingual speakers differed in length of residence (LoR) in the L2 environment: bilingual speakers with relatively longer LoR were categorized as high-proficiency; those with shorter LoR as low-proficiency. Materials were video animation clips that depict goal-oriented motion events; participants were asked to describe verbally what had happened in each animation. English monolinguals produced more manner verbs than path verbs in English, whereas Korean-English bilinguals (both long and short LoR) produced more path verbs than manner verbs in Korean. The event conceptualization patterns of their L1 Korean remained intact regardless of their L2 proficiency. However, bilinguals with long LoR successfully switched toward the patterns of English monolinguals, whereas bilinguals with short LoR did not; this result shows an L1 transfer effect. Typological differences between L1 and L2 instantiated in thinking for speaking in bilingualism is discussed as a function of different LoR of bilingual speakers.